Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Before Hurricane Irene - Walking Around Brooklyn

Saturday I didn't really want to sit around the apartment all day before Hurricane Irene hit, especially as it was nicer out than it had been most of the summer, lots of clouds and breeze...

After Leena and got off the phone I showered and got my green tea ready and switched to the widest lens on my camera (which I haven't been using in the summer because in sunshine there's too much contrast between light and dark).

I found a map of New York City from the city which shows the various hurricane evacuation zones. I planned a rough route to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade that would avoid all the evacuation zones in between, which re mainly the ones lower down, closer to the water. My own apartment is about three blocks uphill from where they're evacuating.

Then I headed out. Since 5th Avenue was the edge of some of it, I walked up to 6th Avenue to be sure I stayed out of those zones. There was less traffic, but lots of people walking along 6th Avenue. Every time I passed by friends or neighbors who were passing each other the conversations between them was usually "hey, we're having a hurricane party tonight, come on over. We have wine, but if you want, bring some beers, too…"

Almost everyone coming out of a grocery store when I was passing by had either bottled water or beer, and the wine shops (retailers selling bottled wine, not bars) were packed with people, more than I usually see…

I hadn't gone more than a few blocks before the heat started getting to me. It's super hot out today, even if it doesn't look like it should be… My clothes were just sticking to me…

Once I got up to Flatbush Avenue, I took a bit of a zig-zag path through the Boerum Hill and Brooklyn Heights neighborhoods. I tried to explore some of the streets I'd crossed before without walking along and that was fun.

On Livingston Street I got soaked as the rain started pouring and pouring. Lots of big, fat drops… But it felt so much cleaner than the sweat, so that was good. Once under a construction scaffold, and out of the rain I took out my phone. In my pocket it was getting a bit wet, since my pants were soaking through. I stuck it in a water resistant compartment of my backpack that has rubber covering the zipper to help keep the water out.

Around there I also got lost and where I thought I was walking to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, I ended up on a street going downhill and under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. I knew that was wrong, because the promenade is on top of the BQE…

Fortunately I was only about two blocks off, and it was easy to find where I needed to go.

I've been on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade a couple of times before, and it's always been pretty crowded, but not today. Today there were maybe a dozen people or so on it. Most with umbrellas. Some people relaxed on the wet benches… When I was up there it wasn't raining anymore, so I took out my big camera and used that to take some photos. I haven't offloaded them to the computer yet to see them…

At the far end of the promenade there's a little circle with benches all around and lots of trees on one side. In the middle is a weird sculpture with zodiac signs and roman numerals and all that. I took lots of photos of that, with light shining through the little droplets of rain water hanging off it…

Then since it was pretty calm I went down the hill to the Brooklyn Bridge Park, which is unambiguously in the evacuation zone, right on the water…

The main part of the park was blocked off with a police barricade and an officer was standing there. But one small pier (the one with all the wedding parties I photographed from another) was open and a few people were milling about. I wandered out there and took some photos, too. Across the river the heavy clouds were covering the tops of the lower Manhattan sky scrapers, while looking a both farther away the top of the Empire State Building was fading into the clouds… Pretty cool looking.

I walked around down there for a little while, as all was calm no wind and no rain. I photographed a lot of graffiti on a building under the Brooklyn Bridge. I'd seen it before, but usually there so many people I felt like I'd be in the way if I was blocking the sidewalk to take photos. Not today, of course…

There were continuous patrols from police cars with their lights flashing, but no sirens. I guess checking to make sure no one was looting because of general solitude down there. Or keeping an eye out to be able to tell people to leave if it got later or the wind started picking up.

From there I worked my way up hill and back to my neighborhood. By then the subway was shut down so walking was the only option.

On the way I stopped for a couple of slices of pizza and a Coke at a place that was open. Restaurants were a mixed bag, some open, some closed that are usually open on Saturday afternoons… Some jam packed with people and some virtually empty.

I was uncomfortable in the restaurant because my clothes were completely soaked and sticking to me, while sweat was running down my face into my mouth while I was eating…

After getting back to the apartment the first thing I did was move the computer some distance from the windows so I can keep them open without worrying about the computer.

By around 7pm the rain outside was picking up again. It's very, very noisy, dripping down on the air conditioners that stick out of the windows. Louder than the music I was playing…